19/09/2014 The Film Review

Now, Mark Kermode give his verdicts on the latest releases in the Film

Welcome to the film review on BBC News. We take us through this

week's cinema releases. What do we have? A mixed bag. 20,000 days on

earth, a kind of fictionalised portrait of a day in the life of

Nick Cave. The right club, based on the stage

play, Posh. And the latest from Woody Allen. Magic in the moonlight.

Nick Cave. RU a fan? Ish. Will I be, once I have seen this film?

This is something you can enjoy as a piece of cinema. This is a

fictionalised documentary. He's been honoured with 20,000 days, mid`50s

rock star. It takes the form of a day in the life of Nick Cave. You

see him driving around the streets of Brighton, his adopted home, we

see him having lunch with Warren Ellis, and we see him having

conversations with people like Ray Winstone. And we see him going

through an archive of his past and ruminating on what it meant. Here is

a clip. That's me and Kylie, wearing shorts there. What happened with

Kylie? I wrote this song and I wanted her to sing on it and we were

just trying to find out how to get to Kylie, and she had management

that was very protective of her and her image in all of that sort of

thing. But she happened to be going out with Michael Hutchence. We

managed to get hold of Michael, and she was sitting next to him when we

rang, and we said, can Kylie come in and sing a song for us? We ended up

on top of the Pops. That whole event around Kylie kind of lives in this

weird bubble. Where life, for that brief time, was kind of different

because we were suddenly thrown into this weird situation of having a hit

record and then, obviously, people bought the album and listen to it.

And then they realised that that would be the last time they would

have anything to do with Nick Cave and the bad seeds. `` Bad Seeds. But

for me, it was a big moment in time. That is one of the most

straightforward moments, the rest of it is a lot more out of this. There

is more Thera `` theatre. `` a lot more artifice. There are strange

conversations with Kylie Minogue and Ray Winstone and it's like a

performance piece. You get the idea with rock documentaries of them

lifting the veil and showing you the real person, but what this does is

through theatre and artifice, and it is a piece of film`making,

fictionalised documentary, it gets oddly closer to the truth in the way

that a fictional film might be, like Performance, told us more about Mick

Jagger, or the man who fell to Earth told us more about David Bowie. It

is more about the creation of his art. He talks about the fact that

through his screenplays and novels he has created an alternative world

in which she believes in the forces of good and evil, and the

documentary has a similar take on the reality of his life. It's also a

film about Brighton. If you saw the film about the Man whose mind

exploded, this film has a lot in common with that. It's about the

idea of Brighton and the idea of somebody creating art which is a lot

to do with memory within the landscape. None of it is to be taken

at face value. It is all a performance. But that is kind of

what you want from a performer like Nick Cave. I was going to ask

whether there was a balance between what it reveals and what it

conceals? It reveals what it does reveal by concealing. The whole

thing that makes Nick Cave interesting is his art and the

artifice. The documentary seems happy with that. It taxi quite funny

and beautiful to look at. `` it is actually quite funny. It's a very

interesting film and you don't have to be a fan of Nick Cave to get that

out of it. That is that one. The Riot Club has been adapted from the

stage play, and it's the story of Oxford tops to their great

resemblance to the Burlington club, and they get together, they are

massively overprivileged, and they go into a room above a pub and they

have a meal and they behave appallingly. The film is a satire on

privilege and is a satire on that whole slightly archaic idea of

overprivileged toffs behaving terribly. The stage play was an

incendiary experience, but this suffers from not knowing how nasty

to make the characters. You have to have a really good reason for asking

to spend 90 minutes in the company of people this obnoxious, so where

is the satire? The famous thing about the Bullingdon Club is that

many politicians came out of it, and many have done very well for

themselves, and the film does definitely portray these characters

as pretty loathsome, but it also wants you to kind of sympathise with

the new incumbent. It sort of gets lost in not knowing quite how nasty

to be. That said, the performances are good and there is a scene

stealing cameo by Tom Hollander who is terrific as the ex`club member

who is now an MP, who seems terribly familiar. I am guessing we have to

pick the clip carefully. Yes, I think so. It is rich kids behaving

badly. Woody Allen, Colin Firth, what's wrong to light `` not to

like? Woody Allen always said he loved conjuring acts as a kid and

he's dealt with magic in the work before. It's the 1920s, south of

France, Colin Firth is a magician on stage and has this character who is

a sceptic but does not relate `` believe in magic in the real world

and he is called upon by a friend to divide `` debunker clairvoyant who,

we are told is actually in touch with the other side for real. There

is a clip. `` here is a clip. Good evening. I understand you are

holding a seance tonight. She's been waiting for the right moment and now

she says the planets are in alignment. Why do they have to be in

alignment and what with? Your vertebrae? You cannot do the seance

if someone in the room is a nonbeliever. When you contact the

spirits, will we be able to see the souls, and how are they different

from ghosts? Or are they ghost? I should think souls are different.

Have you ever heard of ectoplasm? Isn't that a bit like yoghurt? You

are a joker. So it looks like yoghurt but it will actually be her

former husband. The funny thing about this is that is that it is a

sweet film, lots of chuckles if not belly laughs, and it feels a bit

lightweight compared to Blue Jasmine. I don't mind that about it

and it looks beautiful, and you saw it coming out with the Sony lenses.

It looks like an old movie, and Colin Firth does that brittle,

difficult character very well. The problem, if there is one, is you

won't remember it for very long. We will see it, like it whilst it's

there, but once it has gone, it is gone. It's like a magic trick, it

makes itself disappear. Occasionally plonks around like a stage magician

doing something contrived. But it is sweet natured, I smiled, I love the

couple times and Wally Alan's rate of output is so extraordinary, filmy

year, every year, they can't be classics `` Woody Allen's rate of

Albert. It's a nice stopgap. `` rate of output. I saw an underwhelming

tag line, a piece of love. What is the best film out there at the

moment? Pride is the best film. You can also see one of the actors in

The Riot Club. It's a terrific story about lesbian and gay men supporting

the miners, based on a true story. It's uplifting and I'm politically

inclined to like it anyway. The 1980s as a special time and all

that, but it's funny, it's smart, its sharp, it's political, it's

sensitive. You laugh, you cry, and it's terrific. I would encourage

everybody to see it, whatever your political persuasion. Telling a

story that might surprise as well. Anyone under the age of 20, go and

see it, and they find this stuff out the first, which is great. That's

the best film. What about DVDs? This is shaping up as my favourite of the

year. Frank, inspired by the legend Frank Sidebottom, but also captained

the heart and Daniel Johnson. `` Captain beef heart. It is a one`off

musical bio pic, like 20,000 Days on Earth does, some things are true,

some things are fictional, and it creates something special. For me,

Frank is a standout. Michael Fassbender spends the whole film

almost with the Frank Sidebottom head covering his features and never

once do you think you need to see his head. It's an extraordinary

piece of work. Good stuff. Thank you, Mark. A quick reminder that you

can go and find more film news and reviews from across the BBC online,

including all the preview shows. That is it for this week. So thanks

very much for watching. Goodbye.